New Bio-Sensor Draws Liquid Out From Under Your Skin To See If You’re Thirsty

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As you may well know, plants (and humans) need electrolytes. Until now, however, we’ve had to trust our guts and go out and buy a bottle of Brawndo if we were feeling a little down. Fear not, however, because a new sensor will use micro needles to steal a bit of your precious bodily fluids in order to tell when you need to fuel up.

The system, created by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Ronen Polsky and his team, is small enough to fit in a watch and sits on the surface of the skin. It samples interstitial fluid – the fluid between cells – and not your blood. It is painless because the needles don’t activate any nerves in the body. It’s designed for both doctors who need to maintain certain levels in a patient as well as athletes who might need to know when they should replenish electrolytes.

With a bit of tweaking, the system could also test for sodium and calcium levels in the body as well. Future systems could also allow users to get doses of the right minerals and electrolytes as needed, based on a feedback loop led by the sensor. Because it’s non-invasive, painless, and doesn’t sample actual blood it’s far more efficient than current methods for biosensing.

“We want to make the device wearable, noninvasive, and with real-time readout to constantly measure things a doctor might normally order for laboratory tests,” said Polsky.

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OverviewSandia is a conducts research and development into the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons.
Sandia’s mission is to maintain the reliability of the nuclear weapon systems of the United States of America. It also conducts research and development in arms control and non-proliferation technologies, and investigates methods for the disposal of hazardous waste generated from the production …